Hyderabad, Aug 27 (IANS): Four prisoners undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at Gandhi hospital here escaped in the wee hours on Thursday, officials said.

The inmates escaped after allegedly removing the iron grills of a bathroom's window on the second floor of the main building of the government-run hospital, where they were undergoing treatment.

Police suspect that the incident happened around 3 a.m. Special teams have been formed to track down the escaped convicts.

The police are scanning the CCTV footage at the hospital premises. Senior police officials are investigating how the prisoners managed to escape despite tight security at the facility.

While two prisoners were undertrials from Chanchalguda Central Prison, the other two were convicts who were serving their sentence in Cherlapally jail. One of them was shifted to Gandhi hospital after he had contracted the Covid infection while undergoing treatment at Government Hospital for Mental Care in Erragadda here.

The four was among 10 prisoners to have tested positive for the virus and were undergoing treatment at the hospital for the last few days.

For the last six months, police have been maintaining tight security at Gandhi hospital and it was further beefed up after a couple of incidents of attacks on doctors and other staff by relatives of Covid patients.